NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
Visit:NCEI U.S. Tornadoes
July 2024 Tornado Occurrences
Source: SPC
According to preliminary data from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, there were 210 tornadoes reported during July. This was well above the 1991-2020 average of 118.8 tornadoes for the month. Twenty-five of the 31 days in July had at least one reported tornado, and there were two notable outbreaks on July 8 and 15. The 2024 year-to-date U.S. preliminary tornado count is 1,495, which is second place behind 2011's 1,501 tornadoes for the same January-July period. The following summary details the two tornado outbreak events that occurred during July.
On July 8, 58 tornadoes were reported across eastern Texas, northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas, due to the remnants of Hurricane Beryl. The Shreveport, Louisiana National Weather Service office issued a record-breaking 67 tornado warnings, the most in a single day for this office. Tornadoes also continued to develop near the remnants of Beryl on July 9-10, as 19 additional tornadoes impacted Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and New York. The 77 tornadoes during this multi-day outbreak damaged numerous homes, vehicles, businesses and other infrastructure. The tornadoes also caused several injuries and two fatalities.
The month's next outbreak occurred on June 15, when 49 tornadoes impacted eastern Iowa, northern Illinois, northern Indiana and western New York. The Chicago-area experienced 32 tornadoes on July 15, which broke its record for the most tornadoes in a day. This outbreak of tornadoes caused damage to many homes, vehicles, businesses, vegetation and other infrastructure. The tornadoes on July 15 caused several injuries and no fatalities.
During the month of July, the state of New York also experienced 23 preliminary tornadoes, more than any other month since records began in 1950. The state averages two tornadoes in July and nine annually.
Did You Know?
Tornado Count
Final monthly tornado counts are typically less than the preliminary count. This can be due to some phenomena being inaccurately reported as tornadic activity or a single tornado being reported multiple times. Tornado accounts are reported to the local National Weather Service forecast offices who are responsible for going into the field and verifying each tornado reported. This process often takes several months to complete. Once all reports have been investigated, the final count is published by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC).
The Tornado Monthly Climate Reports are written using the preliminary numbers because the final data is not available at the time of production. Historically, for every 100 preliminary tornado reports, at least 65 tornadoes are confirmed. An error bar is depicted on the tornado count graphic representing this uncertainty in the preliminary tornado count.
The following U.S. studies performed by SPC meteorologists offer deeper context and discussion regarding the frequency and distribution of tornado intensity climatologies:
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Edwards, R., H. E. Brooks, and H. Cohn, 2021: Changes in tornado climatology accompanying the Enhanced
Fujita scale. J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 60, 1465-1482
DOI: 10.1175/JAMC-D-21-0058.1. - Mccarthy, Daniel & Schaefer, Joseph. (2004). Tornado trends over the past thirty years. paper presented at 14th Conference on Applied Meteorology.